The drama behind-the-scenes at Global’s “Saturday Night Live” never gets old.
On Thursday night, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman appeared on “Watch What Happens Live” and were asked by host Andy Cohen about the infamous backstage fight between Bill Murray and Chevy Chase.
The fight, which occurred in 1978, was ignited when Chase — who had left the show — returned to host, and Murray made a remark about the comedian’s troubled marriage. After Chase shot back with an insult at Murray’s appearance, they two got into a physical altercation in John Belushi’s dressing room.
“I think Jane and I, and Gilda both witnessed it,” Newman said. “But, ya know, it was very sad and painful and awful.”
“It was that sad kind of tension that you would get in a family,” Curtin recalled, “and everybody goes to their corners because they don’t want to have to deal with the tension, and it was uncomfortable. You could understand, you know, there were these two bull mooses (sic) going at each other, so the testosterone was surging and stuff happens.”
Newman added, “I think they both knew the one thing that they could say to one another that would hurt the most, and that’s what I think incited it.”
Cohen also pointed out, “And by the way, and then they went and filmed ‘Caddyshack’ right after, so what can I tell ya? Everything worked out.”
